There’s no shortage of myths about living kidney donation. You may have heard that donors should no longer participate in sports or try to get pregnant. Well, meet Angèle. She’s a triathlete, a mother and a living kidney donor who gave her father a new life 13 years ago.

Kidney donors like Trina usually face many months of tests, but a new program at The Ottawa Hospital allowed her to complete nearly all of them in just one day. Trina shares her experience as a living donor and how this new program made it easier to give her brother the gift of life.

Have you ever wondered how to become an organ donor? Or how to have that conversation with your family or friends? We spoke with experts from The Ottawa Hospital and Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) about the most common organ donation questions they receive. Here are their answers.

The Ottawa Hospital and the Trillium Gift of Life Network honoured 28 living organ donors at a ceremony on Oct. 30, 2018. Living donors and recipients shared their touching stories about how organ donation has changed their lives.

When Denise Schaerer feels a thumping in her chest, she doesn’t just feel her own heartbeat – she feels someone else’s as well. More than 300 patient family members gathered on April 25 at the General and Civic campuses to honour someone they loved, who had consented to organ donation.

How would you go about asking family, friends or acquaintances to donate a kidney? It’s an enormous request, and it’s not always easy. “I thought about it a lot – how I would approach somebody. You have a lot of time to think about it while on dialysis.”